Living In Another World With A Farm Chapter 8438: Cracking _1

Following a full month of dedicated study, Zhao Hai administered a thorough examination to the group. Thankfully, these individuals proved far from dim-witted. Truth be told, cultivators possessed keen intellects. As their power grew, so did their spiritual force, allowing them to grasp and retain knowledge at an accelerated pace—especially through the use of Jade slips. Provided they committed to the effort, they were bound to acquire substantial wisdom.

This presented a precious chance for them to reshape their destinies. Several among them already shared lives with Dao companions, raised children, and nurtured modest households. To secure brighter futures for their offspring—filled with deeper learning and richer cultivation resources—they had to seize the day with excellence, for this was an unparalleled opening.

Zhao Hai felt deeply pleased with the examination outcomes. He assembled the entire team and launched the effort to dismantle the city's intricate traps. This undertaking loomed massive in scale. Beyond merely disabling the traps, they needed to revive the city to its former glory. The sect intended to retain control over it.

Disarming the traps proved no simple feat, as none operated in isolation within the city. Zhao Hai could activate them separately, yet each linked seamlessly to others. To neutralize even one, preparations had to encompass the full network of interconnected traps.

Furthermore, locating the starting point of these contraptions was essential. It resembled unraveling a knitted garment: one first pinpointed the loose thread, then pulled it apart thread by thread for efficiency and thoroughness. The current challenge mirrored this—cracking the mechanisms demanded identifying that initial thread.

The team scoured the city for an extended period yet failed to uncover the central access point that would unravel the entire system. Ultimately, through persistent probes, Zhao Hai pinpointed it. The discovery stunned him: the mechanism's core lay precisely where he had previously disarmed a trap—the quaint bridge over rippling waters. That very tree which had caught his eye earlier served as the array's pivotal outlet.

Only now did Zhao Hai grasp the presence of critical junctions within the vast trap formation. Unlike a magic array, where energy flowed via ethereal lines etched in runes, a trap array channeled power through mechanical elements like gears and springs. Transmission often incurred losses, so erecting a grand trap array required strategic nodes. These junctions held the secret to dismantling the whole.

During the construction of this colossal mechanism array, Number One incorporated numerous such nodes. They couldn't be minuscule, hence the placement of towering trees both within and beyond the city walls. These majestic trees blended into the scenery without drawing suspicion, boasting robust defenses. To the untrained eye, they appeared as mere foliage for offensive strikes, concealing their role as mechanism hubs.

These nodes functioned akin to the vital eyes in a formation; shattering one rendered nearby mechanisms inert. Positioning them at ground level facilitated future maintenance. Traps occasionally malfunctioned, and nodes allowed halting adjacent ones for repairs. Additionally, elevating them above other components ensured smooth energy flow and command over surrounding parts. Powered not by electrical surges but by mechanical force, they demanded such height.

Zhao Hai had unwittingly shattered a formation node in an instant earlier, unaware of its significance. Now enlightened, after prolonged searches, they located it—the outermost node of the grand array. Beginning here enabled gradual deconstruction of the entire structure.

With this revelation, Zhao Hai swiftly guided the team to the towering tree. Concurrently, they delved into analyzing and neutralizing the external city traps. Before long, the two traps Zhao Hai had faced outside ceased operation. Yet they didn't dismiss them upon halting; instead, they scrutinized these mechanisms closely. Their relative simplicity offered valuable insights, easing the tackling of the city's more complex ones later.

As they examined this contraption, its ingenuity dawned on them vividly. Gears of every size interlocked with springs and chains in a web of precision. Linked strand by strand and loop by loop, the design dazzled with sophistication. Devoid of arrays, it rivaled—and even surpassed—the finesse of array ensembles in elegance.

Zhao Hai meticulously traced the interplay of forces across gears and chains. He marveled at how Number One's mastery of engineering had ascended to profound heights. Unlike crude approaches relying on a single massive power core funneled through gears and links—wasting vast energy in transit—Number One innovated differently. Such wasteful methods left scant force at the activation point.

Number One's approach diverged brilliantly: he distributed the force incrementally. Activating the full mechanism array required merely a modest initial push. As it propagated, clockworks, gears, springs, and similar devices amplified it steadily. By journey's end, that initial spark burgeoned into tremendous might. Thus, force not only persisted without loss but swelled, rendering the mechanism formidably potent.

Zhao Hai couldn't suppress a gasp of admiration at the flawless craftsmanship. The team's eyes gleamed with awe. Never had they imagined generating such immense power sans formations or crystals—it was utterly astonishing. The sheer force it unleashed proved even more breathtaking.

Zhao Hai wasted no time in mere observation; he dove into collaborative analysis with the group. From the mechanism's blueprint to its constituent materials, they probed every facet. They built their knowledge from the ground up. Frankly, even Zhao Hai lacked prior exposure to formal mechanism arts, placing them all at square one.

While dissecting the mechanisms, they cross-referenced the Jade slips on mechanism lore they had absorbed. Progress surged rapidly for everyone. Yet after mastering the two external mechanisms Zhao Hai had neutralized, he refrained from rushing into the city's traps. True comprehension of mechanism principles was paramount, so Zhao Hai directed the team to reconstruct the outer mechanisms fully—reviving every one he had dismantled.

No dissent arose; they promptly mobilized. But preparation revealed the restoration's challenges. Materials posed the first hurdle: many crafted by Number One stemmed from his later experiments and inventions, unavailable elsewhere. Though he documented formulas and refinement processes, producing them remained arduous.

Fortunately, Zhao Hai excelled as a forge master. He undertook material refinement, tweaking originals where needed. Number One's alloys boasted spell-breaking properties—not just countering spells but dharmic powers too. In combat, cultivators infused artifacts with dharmic energy, erecting shields for defense. Standard metals faltered unless immensely forceful or array-enhanced, struggling against such protections.

Though mechanism techniques packed considerable punch, shattering a cultivator's dharmic shield outright proved tricky without arrays. Solutions lay in materials. Indeed, various substances inherently disrupted dharmic forces, often incorporated into cultivator tools. Number One's mechanisms leveraged these adeptly.

Thanks to such alloys, Number One's mechanical armaments excelled at piercing spells. Still, they lagged against body-refining paths or sturdy defenses like shields and armor. Zhao Hai enhanced these by blending novel materials and refining weapon forms, boosting efficacy against spells, physiques, and protective gear alike.

Of course, Zhao Hai couldn't innovate in solitude. Though he, Laura, and their circle had witnessed vast experiences, blind spots persisted. A thousand minds yielded a thousand sparks, some eclipsing even Zhao Hai's foresight. This collective ingenuity extended their outer trap restorations over nearly a month of fervent discussion.

This restoration phase proved immensely beneficial. They gained total mastery over the external traps, arguably attaining entry-level proficiency in trap arts. Consequently, breaching the city's traps would unfold far more smoothly.

Before long, Zhao Hai and his companions turned to the city's mechanisms. Bolstered by outer training, they dismantled and mended them at brisk paces. Even then, overhauling every trap in the compact city demanded substantial effort. Undeterred, Zhao Hai and the team proceeded methodically. With no pressing sect duties, they savored the unhurried pace.